Careers in Care: Challenges and Benefits
For many, working in the Care sector is a vocation, involving helping others rather than simply a way to pay the bills. There is no denying that Care work is both physically and mentally difficult. The job requires a huge amount of empathy, resilience and dedication. However, it also offers opportunities for advancement, variety and work time flexibility.
The UK population is growing and ageing with an expected increase of 20% in the demand for residential care, home care, day centres and meals per decade. The Health and Social Care sector is the largest sector in the UK, employing nearly 4 million people and is only set to increase. Almost 1.7 million job openings are expected by 2020 from a mixture of employment growth and retirement. The sector is constantly growing, with many different job roles, giving you real job security and opportunities to progress.
Vicki Belt, Assistant Director at UKCES says:
With medical advancements leading us to live longer, more active lives, the knock on effect is a sharp rise in the need for those who keep us in good health in our later years.
There has been a desire to professionalise the sector with the arrival of registration with the SSSC (Scottish Social Services Council) who regulate the sectors education and training. Central to their role is ensuring that all service providers Support Workers are registered and training plans are in place for staff. The SSSC are seeking to inspire more people to view the sector as offering viable career paths, similar to Nursing.
There are many positives to a career in Care that often get overlooked when discussing the sector. Your work can be extremely rewarding, you make an impact on lives every day. Care is required 24/7 so the majority of positions are flexible, you can fit work around your current commitments. The job requires a real diverse workforce as you care for people from all walks of life.
We currently have many roles within Social Care, take a look at our current positions or register with us and a Consultant will be in touch shortly.
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